"Remembering God's Gift" Revisited for Maundy Thursday Once Again

Thursday, April 2, 2026...Reposting this for today, which is "Maundy Thursday" for this year...It's well worth repeating each year.  May you be blessed as we remember our Lord's great sacrifice for us.

Thursday, March 28, 2024...Since today is "Maundy Thursday", I thought perhaps it would be a good time to revisit this post again. Whether or not your church observes this day or not, today is a good day to remember the events of Holy Week...the days leading up to Christ's death and resurrection.  Here is what I shared with you a couple of years ago, and also a couple of years before that.  It's a story and event that we have been asked to remember whenever we come together in Jesus' Name.

4/14/2022: I originally posted this when we were still under "lockdown" and unable to worship together in person.  Thankfully we are no longer under such restrictions, but not every church has a "Maundy Thursday" service.  Even so, we can still join together wherever we are, in a spiritual bond with our brothers and sisters around the world and observe this remembrance of our Lord's "Last Supper".  Here is what I shared in previous years on this date. I hope it will be a blessing to you:

Today is Maundy Thursday, the day we observe and celebrate "The Last Supper" during Holy Week. I have revised this post from a previous post regarding The Lord's Supper observance from our church, so that we can remember the Gift of Christ's sacrifice for us as He willingly gave up His life so that we might have eternal life with Him.  Whether or not your church observes this particular day or not, many will be joining together across the land to partake even if we are not able to assemble together physically. I believe God is using this time to draw many to Himself as we are focused on finding ways to participate in Holy Week/Easter services from our homes. May God be glorified and praised through these difficult days.

This is from a previous church service.  Please follow along and be blessed:

Our Scripture lesson is from Luke 22:7-20, but the following verses 14-20 were highlighted:

Luke 22:14-20

14.  "When the hour had come, 

He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him.

15.  Then He said to them,

"With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you 

before I suffer;

16.  For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."

17.  Then He took the cup, 

and gave thanks,

and said,

"Take this and divide it among yourselves;

18.  for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine 

until the kingdom of God comes."

19.  And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 

"This is My body which is given for you;

do this in remembrance of Me."

20.  Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying,

"This cup is the new covenant in My blood, 

which is shed for you." 

Our choir sang this beautiful song prior to the message today. It was so beautifully written and sung.

 

Refrain:

"Every time we eat this bread,

Every time we drink this cup,

We proclaim the death of the Lord

Until He comes.

Take and eat this bread,

This is My body.

Take and drink this cup,

This is My blood.

(Refrain)

"I am the bread come down from heaven.

Eat this bread and live eternally."

(Refrain)

"I am the vine,

and you, the branches.

You who live in me

will bear much fruit."

(Refrain)

"My command is love for one another.

This I pray so your joy will be complete."

(Refrain)

In the above passage in Luke 22, Jesus said He desired to eat this Passover with His disciples.  Passover was and is a very special time of remembrance of the great redemption of the children of Israel from the Egyptians.  You can read more about this in the Old Testament book of Exodus, chapter 12. Particularly verses 12-13, God is explaining to Moses what He is going to do to redeem His people...and providing the very first Passover through the blood of the unblemished lamb.

"12.  For I will pass through the land of Egypt on the that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: 

I AM the Lord.  

13.  Now the blood shall be a sign for you 

on the houses where you are. 

And when I see the blood, 

I will pass over you; 

and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt."

Fast forward to the New Testament and to Luke 22, where Jesus is explaining  to His disciples in essence that He is about to become their "Passover Lamb"...and so when we celebrate Holy Communion, we are to remember Christ's great sacrifice for our redemption.   This is much more than just a history lesson. It is a celebration on the hearts and lives of believers until Christ returns...It is only through the cross of Christ  and the shedding of His blood that we have redemption from our sins.

In Luke 22:16-20 Jesus is foretelling for all of us the glorious promise of when we will one day sit at the banquet table with Jesus at the "Marriage Supper of the Lamb" (see Revelation 19:7-10)

In partaking in Communion we are remembering the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins.  For a prophetic description of the sorrow and anguish and pain that He suffered for us, please read Isaiah 53.  This is a vivid description of the vicarious sacrifice of Christ. Jesus took on Himself all of our sins...and because of this our sins are forgiven when we choose to believe in Him.

Hebrews 9:22 tells us:

"According to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission."

In John's Gospel, chapter 6, Jesus tells His disciples in verse 56:

"He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, 

and I in Him."

And so we come back to the communion service, where we follow Christ's example given to the disciples at that Last Supper before His death.   

I Corinthians 10:16-17 

"The cup of blessing which we bless, 

Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?  

The bread which we break, 

is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 

For we, though many, are one bread and one body; 

for we all partake of that one bread."

Please read I Corinthians 11:23-34 for the order of Communion, and where we see again how the Lord gave thanks, and then said to His disciples, 

"Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you;

do this in remembrance of Me."

In the same manner He took the cup after supper, saying,

"This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

• We need to rejoice together in Communion. I want to live my life in such a way that I can one day stand before Him.

Remember the great gifts He has given us:

• Promise of eternity
• Promise of sins forgiven
• Partaking in the remembrance of Christ Jesus through this ordinance of the Lord's Supper.

(we sang the following song during the Communion service:)

In Remembrance 
(Ragan Courtney and Buryl Red)

"In remembrance of Me eat this bread
In remembrance of Me drink this wine
In remembrance of Me pray for the time
When God's own will is done 

In remembrance of me heal the sick
In remembrance of me feed the poor
In remembrance of me open the door
And let your brother in, let him in

Take eat and be comforted
Drink and remember too
That this is my body and precious blood
Shed for you, shed for you

In remembrance of me search for truth
In remembrance of me always love
In remembrance of me don't look above
But in your heart, in your heart
Look in your heart for God

Do this in remembrance of Me
Do this in remembrance of Me
In remembrance of Me"

Have YOU decided to follow Christ? Take time to remember His great sacrifice for your sins as you celebrate communion with Him and His body, the church.

After partaking of communion  today we closed the service with the following song, (one of my favorite hymns):  "And Can It Be?"  I hope you will sing along with me here:

VERSE 1
And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood
Died He for me, who caused His pain
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

VERSE 2
He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace
Emptied Himself of all but love
And bled for Adam’s helpless race
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free
For O my God, it found out me!
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shoudlst die for me?

VERSE 3
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light
My chains fell off, my heart was free
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee
Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou, my God shouldst die for me?

VERSE 4
No condemnation now I dread
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine
Alive in Him, my living Head
And clothed in righteousness divine
Bold I approach the eternal throne
And claim the crown, through Christ my own
Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou my God, shouldst die for me?

2/3/2019: Personal notes from me (Pam) here:  I don't know if your church observes Holy Communion once a month, once a quarter, or every Sunday, but I know for me when we started coming to this particular church at first I was a little uncertain about the necessity for taking communion every Sunday.  But then I remembered that the early church "continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Acts 2:42), and that the believers were encouraged to "proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." (I Corinthians 11:26)  I find the time of communion at the close of our service to be a personal time of worship, prayer, and introspection as I examine my own heart and seek God's will and direction for my life.  It is a cleansing time, where I can once again remember how Christ sacrificed His very blood for me so that I would be washed clean from all my sins, and therefore  I want to surrender my life to Him for service  in whatever way He leads.  Sometimes we get complacent and lazy in our faith walk, and we tend to forget why we are here and what we are supposed to be doing in God's kingdom.  The communion service is a stark reminder to me that my life is not my own. I belong to Christ, and therefore I want to serve Him fresh and new  every day. I am very thankful for this time of remembrance each week. It has been life-renewing to me.  I hope this has been meaningful for you as well.  

It's Good Friday-But Sunday is Coming!

It's Good Friday, the day our Lord was crucified on the cross for our sins.

Perhaps one of the most revealing prophetic descriptions of  Christ's death is found in Isaiah 53, which was written some 800 years prior to Christ's life and death here on earth. I won't quote the whole chapter here, but commend it to your reading.  Just these particular verses stand out to me this morning:

Isaiah 53:4-6

4.  "Surely He has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows.

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

5.  But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

6.  All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, 

to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

It was for my sins that Christ suffered and died on that cross. 

Have you ever asked yourself why? Here's the best answer I can find:

"For God so loved the world

that He gave His only begotten Son,

that whoever believes in Him should not perish 

but have everlasting life."

John 3:16

That's the answer in a nutshell. Because God loves us that much. He desires for us to be with Him forever in heaven...and because we were filled with sin and without hope in our own merits,  there was only one way to get us there...through the death of His perfect, spotless Lamb of God, Who took away the sins of the world...

"Behold! The Lamb of God 

who takes away the sin of the world!" 

John 1:29

Praise God for this spotless Lamb of God, Who has taken away my sin!

This past week there have been a couple of special things going on on Facebook that have meant something to me.  One is the "Faith over Fear" movement in our area, which is spreading to other parts of the country as well. People are displaying crosses in their yards or in their homes, to show that they are choosing to have "Faith Over Fear" in light of this current pandemic we are enduring.
Our sweet son, the carpenter, built this beautiful cross for me this week at my request.

There are many verses regarding having faith over fear in the Bible. The one I have chosen is

Joshua 1:9

"Have I not commanded you? 

Be strong and of good courage;

Do not be afraid nor be dismayed, 

for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

It is good for us to remember that our God is with us during this battle against this invisible foe, the Covid 19 virus.  He will fight for us and He will see us through.

Another movement has been the "Red Door  Ribbon (corrected) Movement", based on God's message to the children of Israel in Exodus 12 to take the blood of an unblemished lamb (see verses 1-13), and to

7.  "Take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it."

And then read on in verses 12-13:

12.  "For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: 

I Am the Lord.

13.  Now the blood shall be a sign 

for you on the houses where you are.

And when I see the blood, I will pass over you;

and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt."

Yes, this is the Passover story. And this week is not only the Christian Holy Week, but also the time of Passover.  Our land is currently enduring a type of plague. Many people are praying for God to spare us from this disease and death. The Red Ribbon movement is a way of expressing that we are praying for our families and loved ones, and claiming the Blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ the spotless Lamb of God, to cover our homes and protect our families. As a believer in Christ, we are already covered by His Blood, but this is a way again, like the crosses in our yards, to be a witness of our faith in Christ over fear.   I know I don't have to do these things to be covered by God, but this was something I felt led to do to share our faith with our neighborhood as well as a kind of offering up to the Lord.  The Lord knows each of our hearts, and that is the most important thing.

The best part is...Sunday is coming! We know the beautiful end of this story!  But more about that later...

On to a couple other things from this week's photos:

The lovely Great Blue Heron showed up again. He hasn't been to Still Waters Pond in a while, maybe because of all the goose activity, but he came a few times this week and I was happy to get a good picture of him before he flew over to the other side of the pond:

I sat outside and ate my lunch one day, and these two Cardinals flew in to join me so that I wouldn't be alone:

And this squirrel hopped in for a drink as well...

Our son blessed us by weed whacking the growth of weeds along the shore of the pond this week. They were starting to get way overgrown and we were concerned about snakes, so he took care of it for us. He works for a Golf Course doing lawn maintenance/landscaping, which is considered "essential" during this time, so we are thankful he is still employed, and he also can use his skills to help us!

I hope and pray that you are safe and having a blessed Holy Week, even with all of the restrictions. Let us rejoice in that Easter is coming! And with that new hope we also look forward to the continued waning of this current plague...praying that soon the virus will be on its way out and we will be able to resume our lives...hopefully with a new peace in our hearts and an assurance that God is working in the midst of all of this. Praying for those who are still suffering, whether it be physically or financially or otherwise. May God be with you...and may our faith rise over our fears and give us peace.

Click HERE for a link to my 2019 Good Friday message.

2017: Reflections At the Cross

O Holy Night...

"He is despised and rejected by men

A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Surely He has borne our griefs

And carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted,

Yet He opened not His mouth;

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,

And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

So He opened not His mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment,

And who will declare His generation?

For He was cut off from the land of the living;

For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.

And they made His grave with the wicked..

But with the rich at His death,

Because He had done no violence,

Nor was any deceit in His Mouth."

Isaiah 53:3-9

I have written tonight from the prophet Isaiah, which was written in the 8th century B.C....over 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ.  There is no clearer picture in the Old Testament of the Messiah than what has been written in the prophecies of Isaiah.  I am not a theologian or a great Bible scholar, but it doesn't take much education to see the clear picture of Christ's death foretold in this passage.  There are so many other pictures of Christ in the Old Testament, that it would take 39 books to find them all. 

Another portrait of Christ foretold in the Old Testament is in the Book of Exodus, Chapter 12...the story of the Passover.  The spotless lamb that was slain, and the shed blood that was placed on the doorposts of every Hebrew family as a covering, so that when the Angel of the Lord passed through the land of Egypt on that night, killing all the firstborn in the land of Egypt because of their refusal to free the people of God; when the Lord saw the blood on their houses, He passed over those homes, and the plague did not touch the inhabitants.  When Christ, who was the spotless lamb of God, was slain on the cross...the blood that He shed was a covering for our sins, so that we would not be condemned to die in our sinful condition.

Tonight is a holy night...Christ knew that He would have to die the next day...He knew that He would have to suffer many tortures for the sins of the world.  But He did it willingly...for you and for me...because He knew there was no other way to cover our sins.  There was no other way to bridge the gap between earth and heaven...His cross became that bridge, enabling us to cross over into heaven when that day comes. There is no other way.

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6

"Surely He bore our sorrows, and by His stripes we are healed."

So be it, Lord.

Amen.